The tale of social-climbing arriviste Julien Sorel brilliantly captures the contradictions and hypocrisies permeating French society under the Bourbon Restoration. Using his formidable intellect, innate cunning and charm, the tale of social-climbing arriviste Julien Sorel brilliantly captures the contradictions and hypocrisies permeating French society under the Bourbon Restoration. Using his formidable intellect, innate cunning and charm, Julien clambers his way to the top, manipulating and seducing those who have the power to give him the social status he desires. clambers his way to the top, manipulating and seducing those who have the power to give him the social status he desires. However, Julien's idealism and Napoleonic ambitions are always simmering just below the surface, threatening to erupt and jeopardize his designs. For how long will he be able to smother his true feelings? Bill Homewood's reading masterfully portrays the psychological tension and intrigue of this French classic.

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Listener Opinions

Emily Dorsett | 2/7/2014

" I lusted after Julien Sorel for much of my adolescence. "

Jess | 2/1/2014

" I read this book in French and found it fascinating. I doubt it's as good in English but it is probably still interesting. "

Jim | 10/28/2013

" Six hundred and thirty four pages in all, but Stendahl keeps the reader's interest in this account of an opportunistic young man bent on rising from his level of a carpenter's son to as high as he can get. Starting by memorizing the New Testament (can you believe it) to impress the clergy, over and over again he become the one out of many that is singled out by those in power over him. Love stories are entangled - first with the wife of his superior and then with a woman from a much higher station - and though he seems to have moved on from the first to the second, at the end - when he is convicted of premeditated murder, he's back to the first - more in love than ever. It's a good-read. "

Fani | 10/8/2013

" 3.5 but closer to 4 than 3 stars. More fun than I'd expected from such a book:) The scene where he uses someone else's letters to court a woman was hilarious! "

Bob | 8/26/2013

" An interesting character study and look inside the church, but too drawn out and dated for my tastes. Writing seemed too 19th Century - unlike, say, The Brothers Karamazov, which I also read this year. "

" it might have been influential when it was published, but now it seems outdated. The characters are almost caricatures and do not really demonstrate the attributes of real people. On top of that I thought it was sexist. Certainly, the great romantic twist at the end didn't really make sense to me. "

Mandy | 1/3/2013

" Tiring, intricate, beautiful. "

Marianne Fanning | 9/7/2012

" Tough to say ... unfortunately it took me weeks to read so I felt it dragged. Had I had the time to sit down and devote the time to reading I may have felt differently. The story tended to drag with little action from one page to another. "

Patrick\ | 5/30/2012

" Read while very young and found it a gripping, dense, moving narrative. Too bad he died young. "

InternetRex | 2/16/2012

" this book left my life with someone named Joel "

Riana | 10/28/2011

" A book to read more then one time, great! "

Simon | 8/1/2011

" I laughed out loud reading it, which according to the chair of our French Department IS NOT THE RIGHT REACTION TO THIS VERY IMPORTANT WORK OF LITERATURE. "

Madjita | 7/6/2011

" Le style, le destin des personnages, un chef d'oeuvre "

Pierre | 6/30/2011

" I'll review this great book later, when I'm not feeling so flippant...
"

Joel | 6/27/2011

" 50 too many boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl subplots, but a feel for class struggles was fascinating.
"

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About the Author

Stendhal, the pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842), was a nineteenth-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters’ psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels, Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).

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